Shopping, shopping, shopping...

I have spent countless hours on the Internet trying to find the best deals for parts that I need to finish my suspension and brake line conversion projects. I am happy to say that, if you look hard enough, you will find what you are looking for.

I do have a favorite shop to get my SV tuned at. That shop is Hare Racing, down in Sunnyvale. Since my last tune up, however, the shop has turned ownership, selling to the mechanics. They were once owned by the Keigwins, who also started Keigwins@the Track [Racing School]. I guess they were making so much money, they just put all their efforts into the track school.

I am in need of a new front tire, as well, and I figured as long as I'm doing some front suspension work, I might as well get that front tire mounted, too. I checked hareracing.com and they had the Dunlop 208ZR in my size at a very good price, and they will mount and balance the loose wheel for $10 (a late exception to their December sale that I missed).

I'm also looking for the Race Tech Gold Valve Emulator kit and hareracing.com had it generically listed for $120, when my specific kit is listed at $160. When I emailed Gunther, he broke me the bad news and scolded me for not reading the fine print that prices are subject to change. I lied and told him that I saw an online competitor list it at $120, and that I was just trying to throw him some more business, but I'll go elsewhere to get the cheaper price. He replied that he could price match! Wow! Now, all I had to do is find someone who would actually list the kit at $120.

In my hours of searching, I found that Kiernan Racing Supplies, in New Jersey, sells the kits for $114! That's a steal! I figure that after adding in shipping and stuff, it would be in the $120 range. Phew! got that out of the way.

After many, many bad websites, I also found that TrickTape has got some really excellent deals on Galfer brakes. They're selling the 2-line front stainless steel kit for $85 (the low going rate), but if you want to throw in pads (mind you, that it's the front brakes, so you need to get two sets- one set for each caliper), it's only $23 for two sets of blacks and $35 for two sets of HH's! That's less than 50%!! On top of that, there was no tax (because I live out of state) and the shipping was free, since the order was over $100! Now, that's a bargain!

Gunther's going to sell me Race Tech fork springs for $100; that's $10 off the msrp, the low going rate. After all this stuff is on the bike, I'll be good to go for a while!

Weekend Maintenance

This weekend, I finally got a chance to do a little fluid maintenance on the bike. I did some radiator work and changed the oil and oil filter.

I started working on the radiator first. I had to disassemble the right side fairing and disconnect the signal indicator. I used a webpage I found on svrider.com, and everything was going pretty smoothly. Halfway through the radiator flush, I decided that working with my bike tilted on its side via kickstand wasn't good enough for me. I need the bike to be upright on stands!

I had a set of car jack stands. I had seen on the web that some guy stuck a skewer through his swingarm axle and got his bike suspended on some sort of stand. That was good enough for me! Quickly, I got the jack out of the Toyota and found a suitable solid spot underneath the bike to jack up the bike. I stuck a tire iron in one side and (since the drive side has a smaller hole) I put a 8mm allen wrench in the other side. As I steadied the bike, I asked my wife, Emily to do the jacking. When the bike reached the proper height, she slipped the jack stands under the rests and presto! mission accomplished! Now, I could concentrate on the work...

I quickly finished flushing the radiator, then I put in my seven capfuls of Water Wetter and filled the rest with tap water. After a few minutes of warming up the motorcycle, the water mixed and there- that was done.

Next was the oil stuff. Now that the bike was stationed upright, the oil could drain out more evenly. Having the bike warmed from the radiator job, I pulled the oil plug and opened the filler hole. I exchanged the retired filter with a new K&N filter, a bit more costly, but I'm sure it will be well worth it. I replaced the plug bolt and filled her up with the Castrol GPS oil. The color is transluscent deep red- very beautiful. I warmed up the engine and took her for a test ride.

The first thing I noticed was that the gears were easier to shift. The bike didn't lurch or clunk upon shifting from neutral to first- just an easy "nick-nick". Same as when shifting with riding. I also noticed a little more power in the mid-range of the powerband; the bike just wanted to rev up faster. Interesting. Was it work $6.99 per quart? Hell, yeah!

Enough of that. I'm shopping around for front suspension parts and more brake lines. That will be my next major upgrade.

All about fluids

The other day, while I was at my local Cycle Gear shop, I decided to pick up some Water Wetter and Galfer brake fluid.

Water Wetter is a radiator water treatment fluid, an alternative to the usual glycol based antifreeze and it actually works better. http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp If you're going to hit the track, you're usually not allowed to have the glycol stuff in your radiator anyway, so I thought it would be a good change. The Galfer Super Dot 4 brake fluid has a really high boiling point, so it will have minimal expansion during extended heavy braking application.

While cruising the aisles, I ran across their large selection of motorcycle engine oils. Castrol, Motul, PJ1, synthetic, full synthetic, aye-yay-yay! There were so many different brands and types to pick from, I didn't have a clue what I would get. I decided to go home and do a little research on my own. I found this really good article written by Sport Rider magazine.

http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0308_oil/

Afer reading through that article and a couple of others, I think I'm going to go with the Castrol R4 Full Synthetic oil. At Cycle Gear, they sell it for about $10 per quart. I'll see if I can find it cheaper online.

Bought my rear shock

After weeks of poking around on Ebay, I finally found a suitable shock for my bike. It was a 1999 gixxer 750 shock. According to all the websites that I read, this year should be the right length and all- you just don't want to get '00 or later. As soon as I get all the stuff for the front forks and the brake lines, I'll be getting busy!

Here's the link to the website for setting up the rear shock.
http://www.svrider.com/tips/gsxr_shock.htm